TRANSCRIPT: The Democratic Debate

Aug. 19, 2007

Page 17 of 25

YEPSEN: Senator Edwards, you have criticized U.S. trade
agreements. How do you fashion trade agreements to protect American
workers, without in turn creating trade wars that hurt American
farmers, Iowa farmers and what they're trying to sell abroad?

EDWARDS: Well, the first thing I'd say is I think we've had a
failed trade policy in America.

The question seems to have been, on past trade agreements like
NAFTA: Is this trade agreement good for the profits of big
multinational corporations?

And the answer to those questions on the trade agreements we've
entered into has been yes.

EDWARDS: It's been very good for multinational corporations. It
has not been good for American workers. And in an Edwards
administration, the first question I will ask in every single trade
agreement we're considering is: Is this good for middle-class working
families in America? That would be the threshold question.

(APPLAUSE)

And, second, we will have real labor and environmental standards
in the text of the agreement, which I will enforce. We will have
protections against currency manipulation, which the Chinese are
engaged in right now.

And then finally -- finally -- we will end these loopholes that
actually create tax incentives for companies to leave America and take
jobs somewhere else.

(APPLAUSE)

That needs to be brought to an end.

YEPSEN: Senator Clinton, how do you come down on that question
of how do you protect American jobs in America without setting up a
situation where other countries discriminate against the things we're
trying to export, particularly agricultural exports?

CLINTON: Well, I agree with everything John said, with the
additional point that your question really raised, and that is that we
do export a lot of agricultural goods, many of that through trade
agreements.

And I think we've got to do three things. Number one, we have to
have more focus on family farms, like the gentleman who asked the
question. We have 34,000 family farms, largely, in New York. I've
tried to become a real advocate for them because they get lost in the
shuffle.

So I've created ways of working with them. I've issued a report
about how much difficulty they have getting their products across the
border into Canada.

So we've got to do more to make sure trade agreements are not
only good for the exporting of agricultural products from great, big
agribusiness, but also for small farmers.

CLINTON: Secondly, we've got to do more, as Chris said, to build
up the agricultural and rural areas of our country. And thirdly, you
know, trade needs to become a win-win.

People ask me, am I a free trader or a fair trader? I want to be
a smart, pro-American trader. And that means we look for ways to
maximize the impact of what we're trying to export and quit being
taken advantage of by other countries.

YEPSEN: Senator Obama, how do you balance -- how do you protect
jobs without hurting farmers?

OBAMA: Well, I think that many of the recommendations that have
been made are the right ones. There's one other thing, though, that
we've got to talk about. And that is that our Congress subsidizes
these big megafarms and hurts family farmers oftentimes in the
process.

And we've got to, I think, cap those subsidies so that we don't
have continued concentration of agriculture in the hands of a few
large agribusiness interests. But, on the trade issue generally,
we're not going to suddenly cordon off America from the world.